DePaul Attendance Hits 37 Year Low

[HoopDreams]

The two main reasons for DePaul's attendance issue is the current location of Allstate Arena and the simple fact that they aren't winning games. The new arena is a 5 minute train ride from the downtown campus and 15 minutes from the Lincoln Park campus. The student body population is split pretty much evenly between these two campuses. The new location will have a huge impact not only on student attendance but also the general public, if they start winning. The United Center doesn't even have a train stop as close as the one to the new arena for DePaul. People working downtown will have a much easier commute going to and from games. The location is also closer for people from the South West side of the city to get to which is were the majority of good high school talent is in the city.

All programs go through difficult times. Providence, Seton Hall, and even Georgetown now have had very rough 5 year stretches. Attendance always suffers when you aren't winning. In terms of the long term success of the Big East having DePaul in the league is important. The Big East needs a team in Chicago not only for the market coverage but also for recruiting. The new arena will be a great venue to watch basketball. It's not huge (only 10K seats) and is designed specifically for basketball in that the seating will be right on top of the game. The arena will also have an open feel with lots of windows and natural light (somewhat similar to Hinkle). The AD is done at the end of her contract in June. If DePaul can make a good hire things will definitely improve.

You can toss PC out of this analogy. Even in the early 80's pre-Pitino when we were terrible, we averaged about 6,500 fans a game and would fill most of the building for the BE games. I hope the fans show up at the new place because the apathy for DePaul will be very difficult to fix.

That makes sense given Providence is pretty much the only game in town. There aren't a lot of other options for people to spend their entertainment dollars. In Chicago it's completely different.

[GoldenWarrior11]

DePaul is not on a rough five-year stretch. They have entered an era where losing is the norm, and fan interest has almost completely dissipated. DePaul entered the Big East in 2005, with this past year being their twelfth in the conference. During that time frame, they have had one overall winning season. They have had eleven seasons where they have had six or fewer conference wins. They have had eight of those seasons where they have had three or fewer conference wins. Forget making the NCAA Tournament, they have only had one winning season since entering the Big East. They have had three separate coaching hires since Dave Leitao originally left the school - Wainwright, Purnell and Leitao - and all three have been colossal failures.

The Big East needs to put pressure on DePaul University (and maybe they won't have to with Esteban coming aboard) to finally get rid of Jean Lenti Ponsetto and actually get an athletic director that knows what they are doing with men's basketball. Leitao is completely in way over his head, made perfectly evident from his news conference yesterday. The conference, which was created and founded on strong men's basketball, cannot have a school consistently and foolishly fail year-in and year-out in the most valuable sport in the conference. It's the big reason why the C7 decided to leave the Old Big East and get away from Tulane, East Carolina, UCF, Houston and SMU - we didn't want our basketball brand tarnished. If DePaul doesn't care about improving its basketball program from the lowly depths it has reached, then they don't belong in the Big East.

And before an argument gets made about the shiny brand new arena being built, DePaul isn't even paying for half of the stadium's amount (the city is). And the aura of a new stadium quickly wears off when they program is still losing...

[EMT]

The two main reasons for DePaul's attendance issue is the current location of Allstate Arena and the simple fact that they aren't winning games. The new arena is a 5 minute train ride from the downtown campus and 15 minutes from the Lincoln Park campus. The student body population is split pretty much evenly between these two campuses. The new location will have a huge impact not only on student attendance but also the general public, if they start winning. The United Center doesn't even have a train stop as close as the one to the new arena for DePaul. People working downtown will have a much easier commute going to and from games. The location is also closer for people from the South West side of the city to get to which is were the majority of good high school talent is in the city.

All programs go through difficult times. Providence, Seton Hall, and even Georgetown now have had very rough 5 year stretches. Attendance always suffers when you aren't winning. In terms of the long term success of the Big East having DePaul in the league is important. The Big East needs a team in Chicago not only for the market coverage but also for recruiting. The new arena will be a great venue to watch basketball. It's not huge (only 10K seats) and is designed specifically for basketball in that the seating will be right on top of the game. The arena will also have an open feel with lots of windows and natural light (somewhat similar to Hinkle). The AD is done at the end of her contract in June. If DePaul can make a good hire things will definitely improve.

You can toss PC out of this analogy. Even in the early 80's pre-Pitino when we were terrible, we averaged about 6,500 fans a game and would fill most of the building for the BE games. I hope the fans show up at the new place because the apathy for DePaul will be very difficult to fix.

That makes sense given Providence is pretty much the only game in town. There aren't a lot of other options for people to spend their entertainment dollars. In Chicago it's completely different.

The Patriots are 20 mins away and Boston is 45 min. There is a lot of other options. You're just fishing for excuses. Shit, our minor league hockey team averages about 8,000.

[HoopDreams]

DePaul is not on a rough five-year stretch. They have entered an era where losing is the norm, and fan interest has almost completely dissipated. DePaul entered the Big East in 2005, with this past year being their twelfth in the conference. During that time frame, they have had one overall winning season. They have had eleven seasons where they have had six or fewer conference wins. They have had eight of those seasons where they have had three or fewer conference wins. Forget making the NCAA Tournament, they have only had one winning season since entering the Big East. They have had three separate coaching hires since Dave Leitao originally left the school - Wainwright, Purnell and Leitao - and all three have been colossal failures.

The Big East needs to put pressure on DePaul University (and maybe they won't have to with Esteban coming aboard) to finally get rid of Jean Lenti Ponsetto and actually get an athletic director that knows what they are doing with men's basketball. Leitao is completely in way over his head, made perfectly evident from his news conference yesterday. The conference, which was created and founded on strong men's basketball, cannot have a school consistently and foolishly fail year-in and year-out in the most valuable sport in the conference. It's the big reason why the C7 decided to leave the Old Big East and get away from Tulane, East Carolina, UCF, Houston and SMU - we didn't want our basketball brand tarnished. If DePaul doesn't care about improving its basketball program from the lowly depths it has reached, then they don't belong in the Big East.

And before an argument gets made about the shiny brand new arena being built, DePaul isn't even paying for half of the stadium's amount (the city is). And the aura of a new stadium quickly wears off when they program is still losing...

Trust me every alumni associated with DePaul is completely sick of JLP and has been for years. Her contract will not be extended and I'm confident a change will be made at the top.

Not sure what argument you are trying to make about the financing of the arena? Did Marquette pay anything for the construction of the Bradley Center? How about Georgetown for the Verizon? More than half the schools in the conference have similar situations. This is really no different only we did in fact pay for half of its construction and will be paying rent. Its secondary purpose is to bring additional trade shows to the McCormick place complex which has had difficult competing with Vegas and Orlando because of the lack of this type of venue. Also, the United Center was never an option and was not going to be free. The schedule would never work and its simply too big.

[HoopDreams]

The Patriots are 20 mins away and Boston is 45 min. There is a lot of other options. You're just fishing for excuses. Shit, our minor league hockey team averages about 8,000.[/quote][/quote]

Not really fishing, just stating the facts. And 'm glad your minor league team averages 8K. Chicago actually has an NHL team that sells out nightly. Not to mention an NBA team, NFL team and 2 MLB teams that are within a 20 minute driving radius of each other. There is also Northwestern, Loyola, and UIC within that radius. All I'm saying is there are a lot of options and if you aren't winning people generally don't show up. The Blackhawks for years had no one at their games. Only in the last 10 years have they been selling out. Northwestern understands how fickle the Chicago market is. They have had horrible attendance for years with both their football and basketball programs. This year is slightly different because they are winning.

[Demon22]

I will take the criticism of DePaul's commitment from Marquette fans seriously when they show me the last time their university dropped $80 million on a new stadium.

Until that happens, go pound sand.

[Hall2012]

just throwing this out there, what is attendance for SLU? rpi is close to DePaul.

back on topic.
I wonder if DePaul could arrange the Chicago equivalent of the Philly big 5. would have to draw teams from state and not just Chicago of course

They can make it work without pulling from the state. Well, almost.

Within Chicago they have: DePaul, UIC, Chicago State, and Loyola-Chicago. And then Northwestern can be their Villanova - technically not within the city limits, but don't tell them that.

[Hall2012]

The Patriots are 20 mins away and Boston is 45 min. There is a lot of other options. You're just fishing for excuses. Shit, our minor league hockey team averages about 8,000.

Lol good luck getting from Providence to Boston in 45 minutes on a weekday night. My money's on the over.

[EMT]

The Patriots are 20 mins away and Boston is 45 min. There is a lot of other options. You're just fishing for excuses. Shit, our minor league hockey team averages about 8,000.

Lol good luck getting from Providence to Boston in 45 minutes on a weekday night. My money's on the over.

I was reaching against a guy trying to justify shitty attendance numbers in a metro area of 9.4 million people against a metro area of 1.6 million.....

[kayako]

just throwing this out there, what is attendance for SLU? rpi is close to DePaul.

back on topic.
I wonder if DePaul could arrange the Chicago equivalent of the Philly big 5. would have to draw teams from state and not just Chicago of course

The Big 5 arrangement is great if your program is leeching off of other teams' success. If DePaul becomes the dominant force in Chicago, it'll quickly become a burden having to play unending home & home series with 4 other local teams. Ideally you want something like what they do in Indiana with Crossroads Classic.